Add MS 39943

(Yates Thompson 26). LIFE, and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, by Bede, etc., in Latin: the contents are :- (1) Letter of Bede to Bishop Eadfrith, beg. "Domino sancto ac beatissimo patri Eadfrido episcopo .... Quia iussistis dilectissimi," forming a prologue to his prose Life of St. Cuthbert (Migne, Patr. Lat. xciv. 733). f. 2 b;-

(2) Letter of Bede to the priest John, beg. " Domino in domino dominorum dilectissimo .... Dici non potest dilectissime," i.e. the letter accompanying the metrical Life of S. Cuthbert (ib. 575). f. 4;-

(3) Capitula. f. 5 ;-

(4) Bede's Life of St. Cuthbert, beg. " Principium nobis scribendi de uita beati Cuthberti " (ib. 735). Single leaves are wanting after ff. 54, 57, 61, 66, 67, 75, 78, 80, containing end of ch. xxv, beg. of ch. xxviii, ends of chs. xxxi, xxxv (with rubric to xxxvi), xxxvi (with rubric to xxxvii), beg. of ch. xli, whole of ch. xliii, end of ch. xlv. f. 7 b ;-

(5) Account of two miracles, at the tomb and through the relics respectively of St. Cuthbert, from Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. iv, capp. 29, 30 [31, 32], ed. C. Plummer, i, pp. 278, 279. Beg. " Erat in eodem monasterio." f. 83 b ;-

(6) History of the translation of St. Cuthbert, beg. " Deus omnipotens iuste et misericors," printed in Symeon of Durham, Opera et Collectanea, vol. i (Surtees Soc., vol. li, 1868), p. 158. f. 87;-

(7) Extracts relating to St. Cuthbert from Symeon of Durham, Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae, viz. from Books iii, 3, 16, iv, 9, Preface (with part of iv, 3 at end), iv, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, iii, 18, 21, 23, 24 (see Rolls ed., 1882, pp. 81, 102, 130, 7, 122, 119, 123, 125, 126, 128, 105, 109, 114, 116). f. 130;-

(8) The Relatio de S. Cuthberto, beg. " Anno dominice incarnationis sexcentesimo lxxx^o v^o ordinatus est beatus pater Cuthbertus," printed in Surtees Soc., vol. li, p. 223. f. 146 ;-

(9) Account of the early Provosts of Hexham, beg. " Edwardus qui regnauit ante Willelmum," printed from this MS. by W. H. D. Longstaffe in Archaeologia Aeliana, new ser., ii, 1857, p. 8, and by James Raine, The Priory of Hexham, i (Surtees Soc., vol. xlvi, 1864), appendix, p. vii. f. 149. Vellum; ff. v + 150. 5 3/8 in. x 3 7/8 in. Late XII cent. Executed in England (Durham ?). Gatherings of 12 leaves (ix ⁶, xi ¹⁰, xiii⁶, xv⁶ ) ; i has 1 cancelled; ii wants 3; v wants 9; vi wants 1, 6, 12 ; vii wants 2, 11 ; viii wants 3, 6). Sec. fol. "dubiorum." With 45 full-page miniatures, finely executed, and the remains of one other, out of a probable total of 55. The subjects are:-

(1) St. Cuthbert in episcopal robes, adored by a monk. f. 1 b;-

(2) A scribe (probably Bede) writing. f. 2;-

(3) Formerly on thin vellum, pasted down and removed. Illustrated the cure of Cuthbert's knee by an angel (ch. ii); the hindquarters of the latter's horse remain on the page outside the frame. f. 9 ;-

(4, 5) Cuthbert rescues some ships off Tynemouth by his prayers (ch. iii). ff. 10 b- 11 ;-

(6) Cuthbert's horse pulls down bread and meat, miraculously provided, from the thatched roof of a hut during the journey to Melrose (ch. v). f. 14 ;-

(7) Cuthbert received by prior Boisil on arrival at Melrose (ch. vi). f. 16;-

(8, 9) Cuthbert, now guestmaster at Ripon, receives an angel and subsequently finds three Heaven-sent loaves (ch. vii). ff. 17 b-18;-

(10) Cuthbert talks with Boisil on the latter's death-bed (ch. viii). f. 21 ;-

(11) Cuthbert preaching (ch. ix). f. 22 b;-

(12) Cuthbert, while staying at Coldingham, prays all night in the sea and is dried at dawn by two otters (here shown as three) ; a monk who has followed him watches from above (ch. x). f. 24;-

(13) Cuthbert and two of the brethren returning from the land of the Picts (ch. xi). f. 26 ;-

(14) Cuthbert shows a dolphin sliced in three and ready for cooking, supplied miraculously (ch. xi). f. 26 b;-

(15) An eagle provides Cuthbert with a fish, and is duly given a share (ch. xii). f. 28 b ;-

(l6) Cuthbert extinguishes by his prayers a counterfeit fire set up by a devil (ch. xiii). f. 30 ;-

(17) Cuthbert extinguishes a real fire by. the same means (ch. xiv). f. 31 b;-

(18) Cuthbert drives out a devil from the wife of Hildmer, a prefect of King Ecgfrid (ch. xv). f.33b;-

(19) Cuthbert teaching in Lindisfarne (ch. xvi). f.35b;-

(20) Cuthbert builds his hut on Farne island with the help of an angel and drives away a devil (ch. xvii). f. 39;-

(21) Cuthbert digs a pit and obtains water by his prayers (ch. xviii). f. 41 ;-

(22) Cutlibert drives off by his speech some birds that had been damaging his crops (ch. xix). f. 42 b;-

(23) Cuthbert reproves some crows for injuring his thatch : one makes amends by returning with a piece of lard (ch. xx). f. 44;-

(24) The sea provides a beam for Cuthbert in place of one which his brethren had forgotten (ch. xxi). f. 45 b;-

(25) Cuthbert addresses five men who have come to visit him (cli. xxii). f. 47;-

(26) The curing of abbess Aelfleda and one of her nuns by means of Cuthbert's girdle (ch. xxiii). f. 48 b;-

(27) Cuthbert meets Aelfleda on an island at the mouth of the river Coquet and foretells the death within a year of her brother, King Ecgfrid (ch. xxiv). f. 50 b ;-

(28) Ecgfrid visits Cuthbert and entreats him to accept the bishopric of Lindisfarne (ib.). f. 51 ;-

(29) Cuthbert urged by his brethren to accept the bishopric (ib.). f. 53 b ;-- (30) Cuthbert after his election cures an earl's servant (ch. xxv). f. 54;-

(31) Cuthbert visits the Roman fountain at Carlisle and has a revelation of disaster to King Ecgfrid (ch. xxvii). f. 55 b;-

(32) A priest sent by Cuthbert cures the wife of an earl by sprinkling holy water (ch. xxix). f. 58 b;-

(33) Cuthbert cures a girl of pains in the head and side by anointing her with oil (ch. xxx). f. 60;-

(34) Hildmer, the prefect, cured by bread which Cuthbert has blessed (ch. xxxi) ; the artist wrongly shows Cuthbert administering the bread. f. 61 ;-

(35) Cuthbert heals a child sick of the plague (cl. xxxiii). f. 62 b ;-

(36, 37) Cuthbert, while at the abbess Aelfleda's table, has a vision of the soul of her servant Hadwald, who falls from a tree in no. 36, being received in Heaven (ch. xxxiv). ff. 63 b-64;-

(38) Cuthbert, while a guest of the abbess Verca, turns water into wine (ch. xxxv). f. 66 ;-

(39) Cuthbert in a boat, leaving Lindisfarne for the last time (ch. xxxvii ; evidently misplaced as illustration to xxxviii). f. 71 b ;-

(40) Death of Cuthbert (chap. xxxix). f. 73;-

(41) The monks signal the news of Cuthbert's death from Farne island to Lindisfarne (ch. xl). f. 74 b ;-

(42) The Saint's body is found un-decayed after eleven years (ch. xlii). f. 77 ;-

(43) A sick man cured by prayer at the Saint's tomb (ch. xliv). f. 79 ;-

(44) A paralytic cured by putting on the Saint's shoes (ch. xlv). f. 80; - (45) Cure of the paralytic Beadothegn at the Saint's tomb (Bede, Hist. Eccl. iv, 29 [31]). f. 83;-

(46) A youth cured of a tumour in his eye by touching it with a hair of the Saint belonging to the priest Thuidred (Bede., Hist. Eccl., iv, 30 [32]). f. 84 b. The miniatures illustrating ch. iv, xxvi, xxviii, xxxii, xxxvi, xxxvii [= xxxviii ?], xli, xliii, xlvi are lost. Six of the miniatures which do not form pairs have a 16th cent. note " pictura diminuta [in one case est]," ff. 21, 30, 31 b, 33 b, 61, 79. Two fine decorative initials, ff. 2 b, 7 b ; other initials in red and blue, flourished ; the initial on f. 87 is black. On f. 2 b is the contemporary note in red " Liber Sancti Cuthberti," i.e. Durham Cathedral Priory, where the MS. was clearly executed. It appears in the Durham catalogues of 1391 and 1416 (Catalogi Veteres, Surtees Soc., 1838, pp. 29, 107) as " O. Vita Sancti Cuthberti et miracula eiusdem curiose illuminata ii fo. 'dubiorum' "; the 1416 entry has the note " Ricardus Archiepiscopus Eboracensis," i.e. Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, executed in 1405. It is generally supposed that the MS. was lent to him to supply designs for the St. Cuthbert window in York Minister and went astray after his execution ; only one subject in the window, that of St. Cuthbert's horse pulling down bread and meat, shows, however, any close resemblance in treatment to the corresponding miniature (no. 6, above). Later scribbles, 17th cent., consist of the names " Mary Coll," f. 150 b, " Mary," f. 95 b, " John," f. 116 b. The MS.

afterwards came into the possession of the Lawson family, of Brough Hall, co. York: it was owned in 1828 by Sir Henry Lawson, 6th Bart. of the old creation (see J. Raine, St. Cuthbert, 1828, p. iv) ; lent by Sir William Lawson, 1st Bart., cr. 1841, to the Special Exhibition of Works of Art at the South Kensington Museum, 1862 (Cat., no. 6804), and to the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, 1868 (label, f. i ; Cat., no. 521), by Sir John Lawson, 2nd Bart., by whom it was sold at Sotheby's in 1906 (sale-cat., 24 July, lot 515). The MS. was noticed by the Rev. J. T. Fowler in Yorkshire Arch. and Top. Journal, vol. iv, 1877, p. 249 ; the miniatures were reproduced in colour by W. Forbes-Leith, The Life of St. Cuthbert, Edinburgh, 1888. Subsequently belonged to Mr. H. Yates Thompson (Catalogue, iii, no. lxxxiv; Illustr. from 100 MSS., iv, PI. iv-xv; sale-cat., 1920, lot 32). See also Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhib. of Illum. MSS., 1908, no. 17, pl. 22. British Museum, Reprod. from Illum. MSS. iv, pl. xiv; Postcards, Set 45. Purchased with aid from the National Art Collections Fund and subscribers.